Many travelers have experienced the frustration of long lines at a passenger check-in position. This frustration can be further exacerbated if the passenger must then face a long check-in line at the departure location. As the travel and transportation industry searches for areas to economize, some check-in lines may be worsened as flights are reduced at airports, trains are reduced at train stations, buses reduced at bus stations, and the like.
In an effort to speed up check in, many carriers, especially the airlines, locate remote check-in units at various positions throughout the terminal building. One such remote unit is a curbside check-in counter found at many airports. A passenger can check his or her baggage in at such curbside check-in counters. While successful, these curbside check-in counters have some disadvantages that are emphasized if long lines are forming at both the curbside check-in counter and at the main check-in positions.
For example, up-to-the minute information regarding departures, locations of departures and the like may not be readily available at such curbside check-in counters. Still further, if a passenger wants to change his or her ticket, such change may be difficult to effect at a curbside check-in counter. A further problem with presently available curbside check-in counters is that they are not very mobile. Once set up, it is extremely difficult to move a curbside check-in counter to another location. Thus, if, for example, there is a bottleneck at one location causing a long line, while another location is nearly devoid of passengers, it is difficult for any curbside check-in counter to be moved from the second position to the first position to relieve the congestion at the first location. This is especially true if the counter must be moved from outside a terminal building to inside the terminal building.
While the above-mentioned problems are troublesome, there is another problem with presently available curbside check-in counters that is critical. This problem is associated with the inability of such presently available curbside check-in counters to asses and charge for a passenger's excess baggage. As baggage represents fuel costs, especially for airlines, failure to assess charges for excess baggage represents lost revenue to the airline. With fuel costs extremely high, such lost revenue can be a critical factor in the profitability, and even viability, of a carrier, especially an airline.
Each passenger is allotted a certain amount of baggage weight, and ticket prices are set to account for the fuel associated with this weight. However, when a passenger has more than that allotted weight, the carrier loses money on the fuel.
However, presently available curbside check-in counters do not have a capability of efficeintly weighing a passenger's baggage, and do not have the ability to readily assess an excess baggage charge if applicable. In fact, at high use times, many ticket agents, even at the main ticketing locations, do not assess excess baggage charges as such charging may take too long.
Another problem with presently available curbside check-in counters arises because they are not connected to a main computer for the carrier. Thus, an action occurring at a curbside check-in counter may not be accounted for by an agent at a main check-in position. Therefore, many curbside check-in counters simply do not have the capability to perform certain tasks, such as ticketing, that would affect actions elsewhere in the terminal building.
Therefore, there is a need for a portable, multipurpose unit that can be used for curbside check-in at a terminal station. The unit should have the capability of communicating with a main computer in the terminal station, yet should be amenable to easy movement from one place to another, even from outside the building into the inside of the building. The unit should also have the capability of quickly assessing and charging for excess baggage that a passenger may have.